By Ko Dong-hwanHaving left its conductor's podium vacant for more than a year, Ulsan's city orchestra has chosen Russian maestro Nikolay Alexeev as its leader.Alexeev, who has conducted the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra since 2000, becomes the Ulsan Philharmonic Orchestra's ninth conductor and its first foreign leader since its inaugural concert in 1990.City mayor Kim Gi-hyeon announced the appointment on Monday.Alexeev was chosen following a series of exhaustive tests judged by 20 experts and a civic panel comprising 46 people chosen online.Conductors with internationally acclaimed backgrounds from different continents were invited to apply, and demonstrated their ability in a "maestro series." They were evaluated by the experts, civic panel and orchestra members. The orchestra has never previously held such a screening for a conductor.Alexeev will conduct the orchestra for the coming two years. He was People's Artist of Russia and deputy artistic director of the St. Petersburg Philharmonia. He also led the Orchestra of the Zagreb Philharmonic, and conducted the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bolshoi Symphony and the Russian National Orchestra. From 2001 until 2010, Alexeev also led the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra, the oldest in the Baltic States.